Re: /S/ in old and middle High German; was: Vikings

Sally Caves wrote:

> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "John Cowan" <cowan@...>
>
>> In some cases, the cognates of these words
>> already existed in English, as in the Norse borrowing "skirt" next to
>> the native word "shirt".  (Words beginning "sk" are almost always
>> borrowings, because a sound-change during the Old English period
>> changed initial "sk" to "sh".)
>
>
> Do you mean to say, rather, that in earlier OE the "sc" sound was
> formerly
> /sk/?

Yes.  It was - and, I think, the same sound change happened in German as
well.  Dutch, not so sure.  <sch> represents [sX] there, AFAIK.